All Politics Are Local
AAUW Ashland Branch Public Policy Work
Our Public Policy Team believes that all politics are local. Public Policy actions have been part of our Branch activities for years. That’s why we have long been involved in issues affecting our local community.
October 2024
We hosted an Ashland City Council Candidate Forum with Ashland.news as co-sponsor and included a pre-forum educational session on Initiative 117, Ranked Choice Voting, led by the League of Women Voters Rogue Valley. Approximately 200 people attended; questions were both prepared and audience-generated.
See pictures below.
City Council Candidate Forum Video
City Council Candidate Forum Article
May 2023
We held an Ashland School Board Candidate Forum in May, 2023. The Forum featured 8 candidates for 4 positions. Half the questions asked were prepared by the Public Policy Team and half came from audience members; all questions focused on issues of concern to Ashlanders.
October 2022
In October, we held an Ashland City Council Candidate Forum and invited citizens of Ashland as well as AAUW members to attend. It was a great success.
February to June 2022
In 2022, nine bills were designated as AAUW-supported by AAUW of Oregon. The members of the committee were asked to rally their respective public policy teams to start writing testimonial letters, ASAP. We needed testimonials for all bills but the primary focus was HB 4002 which mandated paid overtime for farmworkers. Our Ashland team also had a second priority, HB 4092, sponsored by our District 5 Representative Pam Marsh. HB 4092 provided statewide financial and administrative support for Broadband governance. The result: statewide 25 letters in support of HB 4002 and nine letters in support of HB 4092 (Ashland submitted nine of the 34 testimonial letters) with both bills passing the Legislature.
January 2022
In 2022, we moderated a panel discussion for the four female Ashland City Councilors: Gina DuQuenne, Tonya Graham, Paula Hyatt, and Stefani Seffinger. This is the first year in Ashland’s history that it has had a female majority Council and a female Mayor and female City Recorder, all elected positions. In 2021, we interviewed our newly elected Mayor, Julie Akins.
2020 REPORT – The Case for Legislation Mandating Gender Equity on the Boards of Oregon’s Publicly Held Companies
A small core team of the Ashland Public Policy Committee started working on a project 2020 to write a report building a case for mandating gender diversity on Oregon corporate boards. After much research and editing, the 46 page report: “The Case for Legislation Mandating Gender Diversity on the Boards of Oregon’s Publicly Held Companies” was completed in October 2020 and handed off to Trish Garner, AAUW of Oregon State Public Policy Chair, for review.
Trish Garner took this report, expanded the mandate to include people from underrepresented communities, found legislative sponsors, and HB 3110 was written. It was introduced at the 2021 Oregon Legislative session. Oregon State Representative, Pam Marsh, District 5, signed on to sponsor the bill. Testimony was given and the bill did pass the House unanimously. It did not pass in the Senate. As of 2023, it has not been reintroduced.
State Lobby Day 2020:
Traditionally, Lobby Days had been organized by the OR State Public Policy Committee.
In 2020, AAUW of OR, State Public Policy Chair, Trish Garner, asked the Ashland Branch to take on the responsibility of coordinating this annual event. Ashland Public Policy agreed and began work in 2019.
A large team of Public Policy committee members met monthly to ensure that the statewide gathering of AAUW members would be successful and well attended. Legislators had to be scheduled to meet with their constituents, lunches had to be ordered and delivered, speakers selected and confirmed, building tours booked and much more.
The result was forty three (43) AAUW members from across the state arrived in Salem to lobby their legislators on February 24, 2020. The attendees heard from key legislators on legislation moving through the Senate and House during the short legislative session. Attendees then met with their legislators to lobby for support of priority bills.
In 2020, we hosted a forum for candidates running for Ashland Mayor and Ashland City Council. The questions asked were drafted by the Public Policy team and provided to the candidates prior to the event. Team members took on responsibilities such as timing candidates responses, screening audience questions or writing thank you notes to participants. The Public Policy Chair moderated.
December 2018: The public policy committee alerted all members about proposed changes to Title IX and requested that members make public comments opposing these changes.
October 2018: Public policy members spoke at meetings and wrote two articles to urge members to vote NO on Measures 103, 104, 105 and 106.
September 2018: Public Policy presented a Pop Up Skit to explain the new Equal Pay Law to branch members.
August 2018: Ashland members joined a three branch committee to investigate offering a Salary Negotiations workshop to Southern Oregon women.
April 2018: On Equal Pay Day the Public Policy committee sponsored a brown bag lunch at the Ashland Public Library where we presented the Equal Pay Toolkit to explain our new Oregon law.
March 2018: Seven of the eight bills that AAUW Oregon Public Policy supported passed the short session. The bills affected women and children and covered education, housing, public safety and healthcare issues.
February 2018: Five Ashland members journeyed to Salem for Lobby Day. The 2018 topic was “Oregon’s Policy on Sexual Harassment, Bullying and Assault in our Schools: Is it Enough?”
January 2018:
- The Public Policy committee invited Representative Pam Marsh to speak to our branch. She outlined her priorities for the upcoming short session, the challenges facing Oregon and reaffirmed that lobbying our legislators can be effective.
- Many members of our branch attended the Women’s March in Medford on January 20th. As a member of the public policy team stated, “Having each other’s back is one of the reasons we march.”
- Public policy advocated for Measure 101 at branch meetings and with articles in the Vision and Ashland Tidings. The healthcare measured passed in a special election January 23rd.
September 2017: Convention attendees presented at the branch meeting on their experiences.
June 2017: Four members attended the national AAUW Convention in Washington D.C.
June 2017: Governor Brown signed into law, the Equal Pay Act. When the Pay Equity Bill passed in 2017, not many people knew about pay equity discrimination and how the bill addressed the issue. The state Public Policy team published a toolkit for educating members and the public. The Ashland Public Policy team sponsored a forum at our local library inviting the public to attend and learn about the recently enacted law. The event was advertised in the local papers and on social media. Refreshments were offered as an incentive for attendance. Copies of the tool kit were offered to attendees to guide them in ensuring pay equity in their workplaces.
April 2017: Equal Pay Day was celebrated with a rally on the Plaza and along E. Main.
Feb 2017: Thirteen Ashland members attended Lobby Day 2017 in Salem to lobby their legislators Pam March and Alan DeBoer.
Jan 2017: Representative Pam Marsh, delivered the keynote at the branch meeting prior to the beginning of the 2017 legislative session.
Feb 2016: Guest speaker, Patricia Garner, AAUW of OR Public Policy chair of Portland.
Members of Ashland Public Policy team attended AAUW Lobby Day in Salem advocating for an increase in the minimum wage and pay equity for women.
Sept 2015 – June 2016: Economic Security for Women and Families looking at Public Policy at the state level
Sept 2013 – June 2014 Year: Interviews, meetings with key people, and research on sexual violence and fear of sexual violence in our local schools.
In 2009-2010, there were a series of stranger sexual assaults in Ashland. Detective Carrie Hull noticed that the victims in many of these, and other sexual assault cases, had either withheld information that would identify the offender or provided false information about how the assault had happened. Over the next several years, Detective Hull continued to seek out information directly from those who experienced victimization. She eventually launched the You Have Options Program (YHOP) in 2013. In 2014, YHOP became a law enforcement model used across the country.
During this time, the Ashland Public Policy team met with Detective Hull to determine whether the YHOP applied to sexual assaults at our local university. It did not. Our team met with the university’s Title IX coordinator who managed sexual assault reporting on campus. Our team advocated for more transparent reporting of sexual assaults and more victim-centered support services. Eventually, the university instituted the Campus Choice program incorporating many elements of YHOP and started providing more timely and accurate reporting of campus sexual assaults.
Note: Detective Hull was nominated by the Ashland Public Policy team for the AAUW Breaking Barriers Achievement Award and received the 2015 award for her work in creating and launching the You Have Options Program.
November 2013: Women in High Places: Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum.
AG Rosenblum wowed us all as she spoke of her eight departments and 1300 staffers, half of whom work in children’s support services. Joint meeting with AAUW Medford.
February 2013: Women in Politics.
What are the barriers for women seeking political office? How can we attract more capable women to run for office? Panel: Carol Voisin, Ashland City Council; Cherryl Walker, Josephine County Commissioner; Joyce Segers, former candidate for Congressional District 2.
Sept 2012 – June 2013 Year: 5- or 10-minute Pop-ups/Skits
Sept 2012 pop-ups: voting, electing women to office
Jan 2013: 2 pay equity skits
Feb 2013: skit: getting more women elected to office
March 2012: Equity in Action –> The Heart of Our Mission.
Divided into 5 groups, AAUW members explored one of these five major issues: Violence against women, Pay inequity, Sexual harassment in schools, Gender gap in leadership, and War on access to contraception and abortion.
April 2011: reprise of Bullying Forum at the AAUW Oregon State Convention held in Ashland.
March 2011: Violence Against Women: Creating a Nonviolent Community.
Examines important issues about violence against women from two perspectives: the political and the personal. Panel: John Kroger, Oregon Attorney General; Sanne Specht, Mail Tribune; Mark Huddleston, Jackson County District Attorney; Gerry Sea, Community Works.
November 2010: Why So Few? STEM Forum.
Highlights and recommendations from AAUW Research Report: Why So Few? Two young women from GECOS (Girls’ Engineering Class at ScienceWorks) talk about their projects and experiences. Then three STEM women active in the Ashland community: Priscilla Oppenheimer, Architecture Consulting Engineer for Cisco Systems; Dr. Laura Hughes, professor of Chemistry at SOU; and Melody Noble Noraas, former Ashland science teacher and Ashland Parks and Recreation Commissioner.
October 2010: Candidate Forum: PP Team + Jan Waitt + LWV. Meet the candidates: For State Senate: Dr. Alan Bates and Dave Dotterer; for State Representative: Peter Buckley; for U.S. House of Representatives District 2: Joyce Segers. Facilitated by Paulie Brading, EMERGE.
April 2010: Pay Equity Day at Louie’s, with Melissa Jensen offering a 23% discount to women. Kathy Brandon interviewed in the KOBI-TV, Channel 5 studio, shown that evening.
March 2010: Breaking Through Barriers: What Women Think of Themselves and Their Possibilities.
Sandra gave a quick tour of the first 3 waves of feminism, then Deltra Ferguson and four young SOU students gave us their outlook on feminism today. How far have women come? How much further will we go? History, family, science, education, gutsy women and men bent on justice (learn a new definition of feminism). Small group discussions.
October 2009: Techniques in Courage: How to Respond to Bullies.
We presented a skit, presentation of research on the bullying circle and bystanders/defenders, small group discussions. With discussion and audience participation, audience members learned how to recognize bullying and what to do about it. State Representative Peter Buckley spoke about legislative efforts to address bullying in schools and in cyberspace.
April 2009: Unequal Cookie Day in support of pay equity for women. Large group of AAUW members made hundreds of cookies in Elaine Sweet’s kitchen. We handed them out on the plaza, engaging many locals and visitors. Handed out Pay Equity Quiz. Laura Cavanaugh from KOBI-TV, Channel 5, interviewed Cheryl Goldman and Pat Brewer, with a story on the local news that evening, and John Darling wrote an article for the Mail Tribune.
March 2009: Leveling the Playing Field.
A look at women in the workplace, with Sara Brown moderating the panel: Lynn Thompson, labor and employment attorney, represented employers in pay equity cases; Sandra Slattery, CEO of the Ashland Chamber of Commerce, on the many women who have started their own businesses here; and Pam Hammond, owner of Paddington Station, on why she went into business for herself.
2007
In 2007, our Branch Strategic Plan called for the creation of a Public Policy Team. While the Public Policy Programs for National and for Oregon are comprehensive and wide-reaching, the Ashland Team has picked from the advocacy goals to develop specific Forums and events that bring awareness, involve our audience, and bring them to new connections and possible actions. And . . . to get media coverage for the issue and for Ashland AAUW.
2002
In 2002, Cheryl Goldman took over writing the columns, and she introduced us to the Two Minute Activist at the AAUW website, where we can send emails to our senators and Representative Walden.
1990s
In the 1990s, Jan Waitt and other Branch members worked for Oregon issues: the Vote-by-Mail measure and public campaign financing, for example. Jan also wrote the Public Policy columns in our newsletter.
1980s
About 1980, our Branch was active in the statewide push to include kindergarten as part of public education. Yes, it used to be 1 thru 12 rather than K-12. Sounds like ancient history. But Oregon AAUW, along with branches throughout the state, lobbied and pushed the Oregon Legislature to require all school districts to offer kindergarten. The bill was finally approved in July 1981.